In case you were of the mistaken assumption that when music comes to me in a dream, it’s majestic or deep or the words of the cosmos or my deepest voices rising to the surface, I present today’s song.1Ok, this one might be one of those deepest voices, but that should concern all of us. This is one of two songs that was in my head when Olive the terrorist demanded that we had slept long enough and it was time to entertain her. I had, again, gone straight to the studio and plunked down the melodies and bass lines, along with whatever snippets of lyrics were there.
- A Monkey on Your Back Ray Toler 2:19
I didn’t give it a ton of thought, but decided to work on Monkey for a few superficial reasons:
- I haven’t done a silly song in a while
- It’s some bright levity after yesterday’s emotional journey2I got a nice comment on Auturgy that made me listen with a more open mind and appreciate it more. I’m starting to warm to it.
- I’m not sold that the other song has any legs
- I could be a little lazy with this one – these are kind of easy productions
- This one seemed like it would be fun to do
Starting out, I knew it was going to have that polka-ish bass line, but between that and the ending phrase and melody of “something something monkey on your back!” I didn’t have any concrete ideas. Still, what I had was enough and spent 20-30 minutes on the first draft of the lyrics. The two primary challenges became deciding on the overall rhyme scheme3AAAAABB, or AAABCCCC – I ended up with the latter and, once I’d decided on that, trying to find as many “ack” rhymes as possible.
The beauty of a silly song is that you can use words like kleptomaniac and lumberjack without anyone batting an eye.4Their eye was already twitching by the end of the first verse, so batting it would just be redundant. I worked out the entire melody and piano part, then started massaging the lyrics a bit to make the rhythm’s more even where possible, replaced some lines with better words, refined the story a bit, etc. It definitely wasn’t a “this all came out like automatic writing” process, but neither was it overly arduous.
Song-A-Day has helped me a lot with saying “ok, this is done,” but I still can’t stop editing, even after things are recorded. Sometimes you have to actually sing the words to know that they’re not the right ones or that they could be just a little better with a minor tweak. One notable post-recording change I made was switching the order of the “gave my face a smack” and “kleptomaniac” lines. Happily, I was able to do that by just editing the vocal and didn’t have to re-record it.
The voice? Well… I have no idea. Sometimes characters just come out. I could have sung it straight/as me, but the on the first sing-through this overly pretentious voice came out, and then the character broke with each exclamation in the middle of the verse. It’s Song-A-Day. If I’m not going to play and experiment now, when will I?
The arrangement and production is obviously influenced by God’s Away on Business by Tom Waits. His song, while similarly off-kilter in sound, is much more serious.5My introduction to it, though, was via a YouTube video where someone had edited a bunch of clips of Cookie Monster to have him singing the song. A little… disrespectful? That seems strong – it almost certainly wasn’t intentionally so. In any case, I bet a lot of people got introduced to Tom Waits that would never have heard him. Any port in a storm… I wasn’t really trying to copy Tom, but there are only so many ways you can make this type of song sound, especially if you’re going for the slightly-drunk tavern band sound.
Actually, that was one of the most fiddly parts of the entire process; most of my sample libraries are beautifully recorded, in-tune, high-quality, professionally-played instruments. It’s hard to make them sound bad. I ended up using two very drily-recorded solo horns (trombone and bari sax) from the Kontakt factory library, then beefed them up in the final verse with a trombone section, but just enough to fill it out. Again, you don’t really hear it – I’ve gotten better about trying to make everything up front and in your face. That’s a larger challenge – normally when I put a part in, it’s because it’s either required or because I’m in love with the idea of it. It’s hard to cast someone and then relegate them to being an extra in the crowd, but if the crowd weren’t there, the scene wouldn’t work.
The final bit of this song, which would be right at home on the Doctor Demento radio show if that were still a thing, was modulating each verse up a half step. I’m not sure I should have done it every time – maybe the first two verses should be in the same key. I also think that it might work better if the modulation happens in the breaks instead of the beginning of the verse. The change is a little jarring as it is. That’s an easy fix for the future, but it’s still a, say it with me, monkey on my back.
Lyrics
I woke this morning in a foul mood
Had some coffee and some tasteless food
I tried to smile but it turned to brooding
Not a very good start!
I went upstairs when he attacked
I stubbed my toe and my mood turned black
I cracked my sacroiliac
It’s hard to live with a monkey on your back
I went to the store and I must disclose
The monkey made me steal some clothes
I looked at the tags and then I froze
Nothing in my size!
The security guard looked like a lumberjack
Threw me out and gave my face a smack
Said I was a kleptomaniac
It’s hard to shop with a monkey on your back
I got back home in the pouring rain
The monkey driving me insane
He looked at me with such disdain
And wouldn’t give me the remote!
He bit me trying to distract me
What I said next I have to redact
He said I always overreact
He’s such a jerk, this monkey on my back
I gave up and went back upstairs
He followed but I didn’t care
He sat down on the bed and stared
Daring me to lie down
I tried to nod off, but I lost the knack.
My eyes wide open and my jaw gone slack
He made me a damn insomniac
It’s hard to sleep with a monkey on your back
Colophon
Instruments & Samples
Pianoteq, Trilan, Superior Drummer, Kontakt Factory Library, Spitfire Studio Brass
Effects, Mixing, & Mastering
FabFilter, Gullfoss
Notes
- 1Ok, this one might be one of those deepest voices, but that should concern all of us.
- 2I got a nice comment on Auturgy that made me listen with a more open mind and appreciate it more. I’m starting to warm to it.
- 3AAAAABB, or AAABCCCC – I ended up with the latter
- 4Their eye was already twitching by the end of the first verse, so batting it would just be redundant.
- 5My introduction to it, though, was via a YouTube video where someone had edited a bunch of clips of Cookie Monster to have him singing the song. A little… disrespectful? That seems strong – it almost certainly wasn’t intentionally so. In any case, I bet a lot of people got introduced to Tom Waits that would never have heard him. Any port in a storm…